Every September our daughter asks her children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The eldest, at six, wants to be a ballerina and t...

Tuesday, 25 February 2020

Seven weeks of winter

On the second day of 2020, I drove to Seven Mile Bay and took some photos of the Confederation Bridge. It was a day with cloudy periods and the sun was within an hour of setting. The sunlight played on the bridge when it periodically broke through the clouds.

The Northumberland Strait was not frozen at that point, as it wouldn’t be for a few more weeks.

However, there was ice along the shoreline and the countryside was beginning to accumulate snow in places.

Now in the last week in February, the scene looks different. The convergence of land and sea is complete and the frozen, snow covered land appears to continue around the bridge and beyond.

One might be tempted to walk out there but the ice in the strait is choppy because of the wave action. This is not a place for an ice highway.

Milder weather this week will melt some of this ice and make it less stable than it already is. However, with so much ice along the south coast, it is cold along the coastline even on a day with the temperature above zero.

It is easy to complain about these conditions but they are part of the history and culture of this place. Those of us who have come to call this island home, have come to understand its significance and enjoy it while it lasts.

these are really beautiful images, the bridge is an especially attractive subject!! i guess anyone who lives in this area knows what they are getting in to. i love snow and i enjoy being outdoors. your temperatures are too cold for me!!

Your words about complaining made me stop and think. It is so easy to complain about the place we live in (I'm grizzling about our heat at the moment), yet really we should appreciate the different things that make our home-lands unique. I am glad you are finding the beauty in your winter. Mxx

I love that first shot with all the horizontal lines repeating! It's nice to see photos of the same thing at different times of the year. Thanks for braving what must have been a "refreshing" (hah) temperature at the shore :)